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In my research as a psychologist, I’ve spent a lot of time investigating what I call the ‘wakeful’ state. This is a higher-functioning state in which a person’s vision of reality and their sense of identity are very different to what we consider as ‘normal.’ In ‘wakefulness’ there is a sense of well-being, clarity and connection. The person has a more intense awareness of the phenomenal world. Their perception is very vivid and intense, like young children’s. And rather than experiencing themselves as separate, self-enclosed entities, a person has a deep sense of connection to the world around them, as if they are part of the flow of experience rather than just an observer of it. And in conceptual terms, ‘wakeful’ individuals have a broad, global outlook, with an all-embracing sense of empathy with the whole human race, and a much reduced sense of group identity.
This state is often associated with spiritual traditions (such as Buddhism or Sufism or the Christian mystical tradition) but I have found that many of the most striking examples of wakefulness happen to secular individuals, who aren’t affiliated to any particular religion or tradition. This state simply seems to be innate to them, or develops following a sudden transformation.
For example, one of most remarkable ‘awakened’ individuals of recent times was the American wanderer and social activist who called herself 'Peace Pilgrim.’ Although she sometimes used the word ‘God’, Peace Pilgrim wasn’t religious in a normal sense. Her concept of ‘God’ was not as an omnipotent being who overlooks the world, and controls our lives, but an impersonal spiritual force which pervades all things (including human beings) and is the source of all things.
Peace Pilgrim was born as Mildred Norman in 1908. In many ways, she lived a fairly normal life until her thirties. She got married at the age of 25, and initially abided by conventional American values, living a materialistic lifestyle. 'I had been led to believe that money and possessions would insure me a life of happiness and peace of mind.' she said. 'So that was the path I pursued.’ The details are sketchy, but she seems to have become fairly wealthy quite quickly. However, she soon began to realise that the materialistic lifestyle was meaningless, and not the life that she was meant for. At the same time, she was confused because she had no idea what kind of life she was meant for.
Her lifestyle frustrated her more and more, until one evening when she was 30, something finally ‘gave way’ inside her. She walked all night through the woods in desperation, and finally came to a clearing. As she recalled, ‘I felt a complete willingness, without any reservations, to give my life - to dedicate my life - to service…And so I went into the second phase of my life. I began to give what I could, and I entered a new and wonderful world.’
It was as if, after years of being repressed because it conflicted with the values of her culture, her innate wakefulness emerged, and she accepted it. And from this point on, Peace Pilgrim lived a new authentic life. She was aware of a powerful spiritual force inside herself, which she sensed inside others too, so that she felt an intense of connection to everyone, and a very strong impulse to serve the human race as a whole. She lived a live of service, working with old people, people with mental health problems, and then as a volunteer with peace organisations, such as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. (Her peace activism led to divorce from her husband, who fought in the Second World War.) She also simplified her life drastically, becoming a vegetarian, living on a low income, and getting rid of most of her possessions. She formulated a set of spiritual principles for herself to live by, including purification of the body (through diet and exercise), purification of thought (refraining from negative thoughts), relinquishing attachments to material goods, relinquishing of the feeling of separateness, and the relinquishing of negative feelings or reactions.
Peace Pilgrim’s innate wakefulness was nurtured by this lifestyle, and became deeper. In one of her pamphlets, Steps Toward Inner Peace, she described another powerful experience which occurred while she was out walking one morning:
All of a sudden I felt very uplifted, more uplifted than I had ever been. I remember I knew timelessness and spacelessness and lightness…every flower, every bush, every tree, seemed to wear a halo. There was a light emanation around everything and flecks of gold fell like slanted rain through the air...I knew before that all human beings are one. But now I knew also a oneness with the rest of creation…And most wonderful of all, a oneness with that which permeates all and binds all together and gives life to all. A oneness with that which many would call God….I have never really felt separate since.
Soon after this, on January 1st 1953, Peace Pilgrim began her pilgrimage. After leading the Rose Parade in California, she carried on walking. She continued across the country for almost twelve months, eventually arriving at the United Nations building in New York the following December. And in fact, from this point on, Peace Pilgrim never really stopped walking. With no possessions except a toothbrush, one set of clothes, a comb and a pencil, she criss-crossed the United States seven times on foot, as well as walking in Canada and Mexico. Wearing a tunic with the words ‘Peace Pilgrim’ on the front and ’25,000 miles on foot for peace’ on the back, she found that she could rely on strangers to approach her, and to give her food and a bed for the night (although often she slept outdoors too). In effect, she lived as a wandering monk, supported by 'lay' people. She walked an average of 25 miles a day, often stopping for speaking engagements or interviews along the way, particularly as she became more well known.
Throughout the rest of her life - another 28 years - Peace Pilgrim experienced a constant sense of unshakeable inner peace and oneness, a constant sense of communion with the world. As she wrote:
There is a feeling of always being surrounded by all the good things, like love and peace and joy. It seems like a protective surrounding, and there is an unshakeableness within, which takes you through any situations you need to face….There is a calmness and a serenity and unhurriedness - no more striking or straining.
Peace Pilgrim died at the age of 72, in 1981, in a car accident while being driven to a meeting. This might seem tragic, but it would not have appeared that way to Peace Pilgrim herself. Like many awakened individuals, she had a strong sense that death did not mean the end of existence. She saw death as a 'glorious transition to freer living', and 'life’s last great adventure.’
Steve Taylor PhD is a senior lecturer in psychlogy at Leeds Beckett University, His latest book is The Calm Center, published as an Eckhart Tolle Edition. www.stevenmtaylor.com
Quotes taken from the book 'Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words'
